Equity flows to Asia surge

January 20, 2012 — Mitul Kotecha

Equity flows to Asia have begun the year in solid form. Although not quite as strong as in 2010 the pace of recent acceleration in flows has been more rapid, suggesting that it will soon overtake the year to date inflows seen over 2010. In total Asia has registered around $4.955 billion in foreign equity inflows. Korea has received the biggest inflows at $2.4 billion followed by India $1.04bn and Taiwan $1.03 billion.

The Indian rupee (INR) has been a clear beneficiary of such flows while the Korean won (KRW) has also strengthened. I suspect that official resistance may have limited Taiwan dollar (TWD) gains but clearly the risk on start to the year has resulted in strengthening inflows and in turn stronger Asian currencies.

Unless there is a disaster in Greece or elsewhere in Europe next week there is little to stop the short term trend but I remain wary over coming weeks and am cautious about extrapolating this trend forward. Like in 2010 and 2011 equity flows began the year strongly only to drop over following weeks and currencies were not slow to follow.

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Euro edging towards year highs, GBP lagging

January 20, 2012 — Mitul Kotecha

Contrary to most expectations at the beginning of this week EUR has managed to claw back its losses and more, with the currency edging towards its year-to-date highs around 1.3069. The resilience of the currency to bad news in Europe has been impressive and its gains have reflected a speculative market that has been extremely short. The end of the week sees no key data of note so markets will have to contend with digesting the outcome of the relatively positive Spanish and French debt auctions while keeping one eye on Greek debt talks with private investors.

Unless there is yet another breakdown of talks in Greece the EUR will end the week on a positive note. I suspect it won’t last further out especially given the pitfalls ahead but at a time when investors have become increasingly bearish on the EUR it may just extend its bounce over the short term. One country to watch is Portugal whose bonds have underperformed recently as markets speculate that it could be the next contender for any debt writedown.

Retail sales data in the UK will capture local market attention today. Sales are set to have bounced back in December but the improvement is likely to be short-lived, suggesting any support to GBP will be fleeting. GBP has underperformed even against the firmer EUR recently but this is providing better levels for investors to take long positions versus EUR. In part this reflects the move in relative European/US interest rate differentials, which has been correlated with the move in EUR/GBP.

I expect GBP to outperform EUR over coming months to around 0.80, with the former continuing to benefit from the simple fact that it is not in the Eurozone and has therefore acquired a quasi safe haven status. Nonetheless, as reflected in the drop in Nationwide consumer confidence in December, this year will be particularly difficult for the UK economy. GBP will be restrained by the prospects of more quantitative easing by the Bank of England as inflation eases further

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Resilient Markets

January 19, 2012 — Mitul Kotecha

Risk assets have registered a good start to the year despite ongoing tensions in the Eurozone. US stocks rose overnight, with the S&P 500 extending its rally to 4% year to date. Evidence that markets are becoming increasingly resilient to bad news emerged from the muted reaction to sharp downgrades in growth forecasts by the World Bank, with the world economy expected to grow by 2.5% this year compared to a June forecast of 3.6%.

US markets also reacted positively to news that the US NAHB Homebuilders index rose to its highest level in more than 4 years and while industrial output expanded, albeit less than expected. Markets will continue to keep one eye on earnings to ascertain whether the equity rally can be sustained, with at least 48 S&P 500 companies reporting earnings this week including Morgan Stanley Bank of America, Intel and Google today. So far, relatively more companies have fallen short of expectations than have beaten expectations.

Even in the Eurozone the news has been slightly more encouraging than of late, with reports that a deal between Greece and private creditors on the extent of debt writedowns could be reached by the end of this week. Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is reported to be raising $500 billion in new funds for bail out funds, another factor that has helped to shore up market sentiment. The net result has been to see peripheral bond yields ease further and the EUR to strengthen, helped by the fact that the market is extremely short.

There is still plenty of event risk on the horizon, however, including debt auctions in Spain and France today although these ought to pass relatively smoothly. US data are likely to be mixed today, with benign inflation keeping the door open to more Fed quantitative easing (QE) while a gain in the Philly Fed manufacturing survey will continue to reveal signs of economic recovery. In the short term risk assets look supported but given the risks ahead any bounce still looks to be short-lived.

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More Bad News In Europe

January 16, 2012 — Mitul Kotecha

Several pieces of bad news soured sentiment at the end of last week undoing much of the good news since the beginning of the year and dashing hopes of a relatively swift resolution to Eurozone’s ills. S&P ratings agency downgraded nine Eurozone countries’ credit ratings leaving 14 on negative outlook. In particular France and Austria, which lost their triple AAA status while not particularly surprising, comes as a major blow to efforts to resolve the crisis. The downgrade puts at risk the EUR 180 billion in credit guarantees underpinning the EUR 440 EFSF bailout fund.

Separately the breakdown of talks on Greek debt restructuring and criticism by the Euuropean Central Bank (ECB) on a new draft of a treaty to ensure fiscal discipline added to the malaise, with the ECB noting that proposed revisions amount to a “a substantial watering down”. Such criticism will likely be an obstacle to the ECB stepping up its peripheral debt buying potentially threatening any decline in bond yields. It is difficult to see sentiment improving this week, with risk aversion set to remain elevated as Eurozone leaders attempt to restore confidence. In contrast, US data continues to support evidence of economic recovery, albeit gradual and this week’s releases including industrial production and manufacturing surveys will likely add to this.

The EUR slid further at the end of last week reversing earlier gains, as the bad news mounted in the Eurozone. Ratings downgrades, breakdown of Greek debt talks and ECB criticism over watered down fiscal rules, combined to make a dangerous concoction of negative headlines. The news put an end to the EUR’s short covering rally, leaving the currency vulnerable too further declines this week. Speculative sentiment according to IMM data reached another all time low last week (-155k net positions), suggesting that any good news could lead to a strong bounce as short positions are covered.

However, it is difficult to see where such news will come from and even a small expected bounce in the German January ZEW investor confidence survey this week will do little to detract from the negative news on the policy front. A meeting between Merkel, Monti and Sarkozy will be eyed closely as they prepare for a meeting of European Union (EU) Finance Ministers and markets will be looking for aggressive action to turn confidence around. Debt sales in In the meantime EUR/USD will continue to languish but strong technical support is seen around 1.2588.

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Beware of EUR short covering

January 11, 2012 — Mitul Kotecha

Europe has plenty of events to focus on over the next couple of days including the European Central Bank (ECB) Council meeting, and debt auctions in Spain and Italy. While I am by no means a EUR bull the risk is skewed towards some short term recovery or at least stabilization around EUR/USD 1.28. The speculative market is extremely short EUR while policy makers, specifically German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy are making the right noises. it appears to have finally dawned on Eurozone officials that its not just about austerity but also about growth and reform.

News that Fitch ratings is unlikely to downgrade France’s ratings this year has provided a boost to Eurozone confidence. Greece could yet spoil the party given the ongoing discussion with the Troika (Euuropean Commission, International Monetary Fund and ECB) to finalise the second bailout package for the country. Opposition resistance within Greece suggests that more austerity may not be easy to implement. Meanwhile there are ongoing questions about the extent of writedowns that Greek debt will undergo. Despite these issues it appears that markets are becoming somewhat more immune to events in the Eurozone. While still high bond yields for Italy and other debt still point to ongoing trouble, risk appetite has firmed.

One factor that is helping to boost sentiment is the encouraging news out of the US. Although the Q4 earnings season has not began particularly well data releases look somewhat more positive. Not only has positive impact of last week’s US December jobs report continued to filter through the market but so has other news such as a pick up in small business confidence and a rise in consumer credit. These lesser watched data highlight the gradual recovery process underway in the US and the growing divergence with the Eurozone economy and support the view of medium term USD outperformance versus EUR.

Posted in Currencies, eurozone, France, FX. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »
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